so from pre-cooling our homes, to using less energy from 4-9pm, together, let's flex our power to save our power. sign up for flex alerts today. right now, local school officials are trying to keep children safe in a pandemic while their governor picks a fight with them and even threatens their salaries or their jobs talk about bullying the scols. >> the president reveals his covid battle plan that lays out vaccine mandates, and will impact nearly every school and business across america. the newest covid variant called mu is raising eyebrows. how effective are current

vaccines against it? securing a refund and not a voucher from airlines over covid-impacted canceled airline flights. remembering 9/11 this morning meet the man honoring his fellow flight attendants who perished above one of those aircrafts and a matchup that wasn't decided until the final seconds. it's friday, september 10th. "early today" starts right now glad you're with us. i'm frances rivera president biden gets tough on covid, confronting the unvaccinated >> the path ahead even with the delta variant is not nearly as bad as last winter but what makes it incredibly more frustrating is that we have the tools to combat covid-19 and a distinct minority of americans supported by a distinct minority of elected officials are keeping us from turning the corner

these pandemic politics, i refer to, are making people sick, causing unvaccinated people to die. we cannot allow these actions to stand in the way of protecting the large majority of americans. >> mr. biden unveiled sweeping federal vaccine requirements to help fight the pandemic. nbc's miguel almaguer has more on what these changes mean for americans. >> reporter: just after the president's announcement in los angeles, the nation's second largest school district is set to become the first major one in the country to require students 12 and older be fully vaccinated by mid-december. the president asking every state to adopt vaccine requirements for all school employees >> if everyone around the country would adopt having these mitigation strategies having vaccine mandates, we can make sure that our youngest learners

are protected. >> reporter: though most cases are mild, children now account for one out of every four reported infections. the president asking local school districts in covid hot spots to offer routine testing, but many still refuse to even require face masks with plans to require big businesses with more than a hundred employees to mandate vaccines or require testing, small businesses are also encouraged to do the same, employing tens of millions of americans. at this market, this owner says he's required all 22 of his employees to be vaccinated anything that we can put in place that's going to make people feel more secure to come and visit my store is the best thing for my store >> reporter: the president's plan could impact those numbers. but after his summer materialize, we could now see a

fall of mandates miguel almaguer, nbc news. los angeles. more mutations are spreading across to hit the u.s., and it's in nearly ty, texas. >> reporter: over the last 18 months, we've gotten a full refresher on the greek alphabet as the coronavirus mutates >> it's like watching hurricane season and running if you're going to run out of letters in the alphabet >> it is a variant of interest >> reporter: it's on the radar, and it's arrived in north texas. still, it hasn't risen to a variant of concern like the delta variant, which still accounts for 99.9% of texas cases. >> it does not appear to be

outcompeting the delta variant and doesn't appear to be a major concern at this point. >> reporter: meaning it's not necessarily more contagious or deadly, but it is proof that the virus continues to change. to understand why that matters, that doctor says think of the virus or at least the protein it produces as a lock, and our body's antibioody response as a key. and the current treatment is less likely to fight the virus that's what he says doctors hope to avoid though some mutation is inevitable as the virus continues spreading around the world. >> we've been fortunate so far that none of the variants have been these variants of high consequence. but the longer this goes on, the more likely it is we ultimately will see one of those which just speaks to the importance of getting everyone vaccinated as quickly as possible to try

a group of soldiers marched in hazmat suits and masks in their effort to fight the coronavirus. but for kim jong-un and everyone else in the video released by the government, no masks or social distancing. the taliban says it will allow international flights to resume at kabul airport. and we've seen evidence of this for the first time since the u.s. military withdrawal, a plane carrying americans left kabul. >> reporter: what was so surreal about what we saw was how normal it looked, given this is an airport controlled by the taliban. those passengers went through customs, immigration, security they walked up the steps onto that plane, and they took off. it was a very, very different picture from those american military c-17s taking off at all

hours during the u.s. military evacuation now, assuming everything goes smoothly, this is the first international passenger flight to take off from kabul since the taliban took over. and it is something of a vindication for the biden administration, which has been saying it would be able to secure the cooperation of the taliban and get americans out of afghanistan without any u.s. troops on the ground nbc news, doha, qatar. some of the victims of the horrific surfside condo collapsed have been victimized again. three people have been arrested for allegedly stealing more than $45,000 from seven of the surfside victims the suspects are accused of replacing credit cards of the deceased and then going on shopping sprees. taking a turn this morning for a heartfelt good-bye and a huge, huge thank you to one of

the best in the business a beloved member of the "early today" family, she's been with us day after day you see her day after day now after almost two and a half decades with nbc news. there's tracie potts who is moving on to a new adventure it's going to be a shock to your system not waking up this early after all these years. >> it is you know what i did though this morning when i woke up, frances? i turned off my alarm, like, i deleted it i'm not sure that's going to help monday morning. i really have this nightmare that i'm going to wake up and race downstairs. >> with all the cameras over the years and your images, i remember, tracie, my first tv job ever from wichita falls, kansas i was, like, i get to toss to tracie potts so here on "early today," you've worked with pretty much every anchor so how about a little flashback

friday >> today the president sits down on a campaign swing.s in washington, d.c. this morning with the lat tracie. >> veronica, good morning. >> nbc's tracie potts has the details for us this morning from washington tracie, good morning >> lynn, good morning. >> tracie, good morning. >> paige, good morning word from the white house, no more temporary extensions. >> nbc's tracie potts is in washington with details on this. good morning, tracie >> betty, good morning >> nbc's tracie potts is in washington d.c it appears these calls for stiffer sanctions against russia are growing louder >> they are especially here on capitol hill we're joined now by capitol hill correspondent tracie potts and, tracie, the president is headed to some areas today that need a lot of help >> right, frances. he's going to be in new jersey right now the focus is on you and me and the rest of america

getting these taxes done on time at the washington monument, i'm tracie potts, nbc news put on a hat, dress up, come out to a free screening and enjoy this special day nbc news, london >> we love seeing all of that, tracie i want to thank you, your whole crew, everybody who makes it happen you have this new schedule, you have all this time with your family where you're actually awake and alert. what are you most excited to do with that time >> yeah. wow, part of what i'm going to be doing is still educating the public about all the stuff that we talk about every day. so that's really exciting. obviously i'm going to miss all of you guys. if you saw all the changes, maybe i should write a book about hair what do you think? >> i think you could write a book, tv show, movie series, podcast because it could go on and on and on when it comes to

decades of all the hairstyles you've been through. for everything you've done for us here on "early today" and putting smiles on our faces, we wish you the best of luck on your new adventure take care. >> thank you let's turn now to nbc meteorologist bill karins with more on what we can expect for the weekend. >> hey, and much credit to tracie she never once ever looked tired. she was always happy, and you'll be missed. so let's get into this forecast. tracking the tropics we've had larry in the atlantic, mindy we dealt with yesterday. olaf made landfall in cabo san lucas. there is an area of interest that's going to be heading into the southern gulf of mexico. and that could bring some rainfall into texas possibly sunday so for today's forecast, beautiful on the eastern seaboard, very hot in the middle of the country record-high possible in denver today. more record highs possible in kansas and oklahoma. and tropical rainfall down along

the texas coast. it's a pretty to end frances, yesterday it was 111 in phoenix. so these crazy, hot temperatures continue >> that hurts to hear. i'm sure it hurts to even feel it thank you, bill. for the first time a major tennis final will be played between two unseated players it's the first major final between two teams since the 1999 u.s. open. fernandez and raducanu duke it out tomorrow

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the only thing that matters to me is still here. i know it's why you're still fighting and why you will never give up. you don't know me.

>> no? >> ah! >> it is time to plug back into the matrix for the first time in 18 years that was our first look at "resurrection. the fourth sequel in the hit sci fi franchise airline passengers could be slapped with a 500 to $3,000 fine meanwhile, nbc's morgan chesky investigates the thousands of americans still waiting for flight refunds that were impacted by the pandemic >> reporter: more than a year after the pandemic caused massive cuts to air travel, tens of thousands of customers are still trying to get their money back after airlines canceled or rescheduled their flights. my new government report says complaints about ticket refunds skyrocketed in 2020 with more than 100,000 submitted, up 568%. this year 20,000 more complaints >> this is crazy >> reporter: this 72-year-old booked her dream trip to ghana to reunite with a friend she met

in the peace corps but when the airline canceled her flight, they only offered a voucher for future travel. >> they are very big and i am very small so $1,700 means an awful lot to me >> reporter: after months of calls and emails, she turned to the department of transportation for help, whose website allows travelers to file claims for refunds. passengers will need to provide flight information, receipts, and records of communication with the airline >> if the airline cancels a flight, they need to pay a refund back. it needs to be a cash refund, and it needs to be a prompt refund and that hasn't been happening with all the airlines. >> reporter: the department now has 18 airlines, both foreign and domestic, under investigation for refund practices and has filed a formal complaint against air canada for delays in refunds. the.at least nine airlines have already updated their policies, making it clear passengers are entitled to that cash refund instead of a voucher or a travel

credit frances? >> morgan, thank you as companies struggle to fill positions during the pandemic, amazon is offering to cover the full cost of college tuition for more than 750,000 hourly workers starting in january part and full-time employees can take advantage of the benefit after working there for at least 90 days amazon estimates it will invest over a billion dollars by 2025 in expanded education and skills training up next, bill takes a look at the hottest summer on record. and still ahead, the all-star comedy show to help 9/11 survivors um.. . is such a . uchhh!!! so now we use our swiffer sweeper and dusters. the fluffy fibers? they pick up dust easily. grabbing it in all those hard-to-reach places. gotcha!!! and for our floors, sweeper's textured cloths lock all kinds of dirt, dust and pet hair. unlike my vacuum, it sneaks under and around places. look at that!!

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one up the power of liquid with tide pods ultra oxi. welcome back so we learned yesterday that we tied the dust bowl era, the hottest summer ever recorded in our country, going back to 1936. and one of the big reasons of course why it was so hot in the lower 48 was what happened in the west five states had their hottest summer ever recorded and these are the same states who suffered through the horrendous droughts and the fire conditions every state here was their warmest ever recorded in areas of the west. climate change, it's here. >> yeah, and we're going to see it year after year when we come back, a retired flight attendant a touching tribute for the friends he lhen we come back here on

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which one of these buttons mutes shaq? ♪ a former flight attendant is going the extra mile literally to honor flight crew members who were killed in the september 11th terrorist attacks >> reporter: walking down arthur avenue, paulie veneto got a warm bronx welcome. [ applause ] this former flight attendant has been pushing this beverage cart for the last 20 days, leaving boston's logan airport, walking through connecticut, westchester county and the belmont section

of the bronx >> i would like to welcome mr. paul veneto. >> reporter: his mission, to bring honor and tell the story about the flight attendants who lost their lives on 9/11 20 years ago. >> all of us in this country appreciate what they did that morning. >> he's just inspirational he's keeping his fellow flight attendants alive through their stories and through him walking. >> reporter: making their own journey from cedar grove, new jersey >> everybody loves people from new jersey >> a lot of stories about 9/11, a lot of them going on the 20th anniversary, but he is the absolute story this year >> reporter: paulie is very open about the struggles he wrestled with after 9/11 including substance abuse and when he arrives at the memorial. >> when i roll that cart into

ground zero on september 11th, i'll be six years clean. >> reporter: along the way, strangers have become friends, the support life-changing. >> it's amazing to see people just drop everything and make sure they're out there waiting for me coming down the street telling me that they had breakfast waiting for me and i didn't show up so they made lunch. >> love seeing those creative ways to honor those victims. america will be marking 20 years since 9/11 with many different ceremonies and events. president biden will pay his respects at all three memorial sites in new york city, at the pentagon, and in shanksville, pennsylvania, where flight 93 was forced to the ground on sunday pete davidson and john stewart will host a comedy event at madison square garden the lineup includes dave chappelle, jimmy fallon and many

others the special hopes to celebrate new york city's resilience and the proceeds will go to 9/11-related charities and phillip will be at that. so, it'll be great to hear his take on how it is, especially remembering 9/11 and the victims and their families thanks so much for s tacalifornia! all of our homes share power. but heat waves can stretch our supply to its limits. flex alerts remind us when to use less energy from 4-9pm. so we can all stay up and running. sign up today.

right now at 4:30, something we vice president seen in months. rain. but with it comes lightning and new wildfire concerns. overnight there is good reason for those concern. look at this dangerous display in the sky. lightening leading to wildfire on the ground right before our eyes. this is happening in the north bay. we are on top of it all, this is "today in the bay." what a way to start this friday morning. thanks for joining us. i'm kris sanchez. >> i'm scott mcgrew in for marcus and laura. this first half hour the storm

system whipping up gh